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Have forgotten a laptop login password

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  1. #1

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    Have forgotten a laptop login password

    Before I go digging around the internet and searching for the original USB stick that I loaded Windows onto....

    Has anyone experienced forgetting the login password to Windows and has some useful suggestion for some easy way to reset it? In this case, it's an old laptop I haven't used in a long time.


  2. #2

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    Do you need to get something off the drive? Or just want to use the laptop?

    If you want to get something off the drive, you may be able to take into one of the comp centers and have someone put the drive into another computer and dump your user files.

    Else reinstall / do the password recovery thing?

    What version of Windows do you have on it?


  3. #3

    Join Date
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    Depending on the version of Windows, you might be able to log on using "administrator" as the username with a blank password. I've seen machines configured with a stock administrator account like this and a separate account for the actual user.

    Can also try logging in as a different user, and hopefully the other user has administrator access which you can then use to reset your own password.


  4. #4

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    It depends what version of Windows you have.

    Pre-Windows 7, if you want to get something off the computer, it's probably easiest to take out the hard drive, put it in an external USB enclosure and connect it to your current computer.

    For Windows 7
    https://www.howtogeek.com/96805/how-...an-install-cd/

    shri and Elegiaque like this.

  5. #5

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    It's "Windows 7 Ultimate". I will have to dig around to see if I can find an old disk or the USB stick I might have had Windows on. *sigh*

    Bit tempted to bring the laptop back to where I last used it and see if that gives some inspiration. Or try the password in a semi-conscious state! What a psychological experiment...


  6. #6

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    Quote Originally Posted by Elegiaque:
    It's "Windows 7 Ultimate". I will have to dig around to see if I can find an old disk or the USB stick I might have had Windows on. *sigh*

    Bit tempted to bring the laptop back to where I last used it and see if that gives some inspiration. Or try the password in a semi-conscious state! What a psychological experiment...
    What is it that you are trying to achieve? Do you want to use this laptop again? Or do you want to retrieve certain files only?

  7. #7

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    Seeing as official windows 7 support from microsoft has already ended, you might have some luck searching for one of those hacking tools to bypass the password

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  8. #8

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    Quote Originally Posted by Windmill65:
    What is it that you are trying to achieve? Do you want to use this laptop again? Or do you want to retrieve certain files only?
    Would like to use it again and definitely don't want to lose the files.

    Pity there's not convenient gmail-style password recovery options.

    I knew I set it at something funny and was setting myself up for this!

    But the password is in my mind, I just have to figure out how to get it out.

  9. #9

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    Quote Originally Posted by Elegiaque:
    It's "Windows 7 Ultimate". I will have to dig around to see if I can find an old disk or the USB stick I might have had Windows on. *sigh*

    Bit tempted to bring the laptop back to where I last used it and see if that gives some inspiration. Or try the password in a semi-conscious state! What a psychological experiment...
    Can you boot to safe mode and see if you can login to administrator account with blank password? If yes, you can reset account password there..

    Can you try this? https://www.isunshare.com/windows-7-...eset-disk.html
    Elegiaque likes this.

  10. #10

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    Quote Originally Posted by Elegiaque:
    Would like to use it again and definitely don't want to lose the files.

    Pity there's not convenient gmail-style password recovery options.

    I knew I set it at something funny and was setting myself up for this!

    But the password is in my mind, I just have to figure out how to get it out.
    I see. It would have been easier to help you if you were just looking to get some files from the hard drive. I guess that your best chance is to use one of the suggestions to log on as administrator and change your password.
    Elegiaque likes this.

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